Summer Appointments

Summer Research and Other Non-Teaching Activities

Faculty conducting summer research or other non-teaching activities (i.e. administrative work, etc.) may be appointed on sponsored funds or other non-instructional funds in the summer. If the faculty member is expending effort on and charging salary to sponsored funds, their summer appointment must follow the guidelines on charging faculty summer salary to sponsored projects as outlined below. If a faculty member is paid on an endowment, they must be either the holder of the endowment or a fellow on the endowment to use those funds.

When processing the Summer Non-Teaching Add Job in Workday, departments should include their stopgap account in the costing section effective the day after the summer work ends. For example, if a faculty member is conducting research from 6/01 - 8/15, the department's stopgap should be added to the costing section effective 8/16.

Charging Faculty Summer Salary to Sponsored Projects

Faculty who are charging summer salary to sponsored projects must follow the CNS Processing Guidance for Summer 2025 Faculty Summer Salary on Sponsored Projects.

The guiding principle of the CNS policy is that salary charged to sponsored projects should follow the effort expended to the project and should never exceed it in any one pay period.  For more information, please see the guidance linked above. Note that the CNS guidance is a follow-up to the Guidelines for Charging Faculty Summer Salary to Sponsored Projects announced by the VPR Office, which were created to ensure compliance with the HOP 7-1010, VII. A. 6. For additional questions on how the Lift and Shift affects sponsored funding, please see OSP's Academic Appointment Alignment.

Summer Salary from Start-Up Funding

Faculty members in CNS are allowed to use start-up funds to cover up to 5% per month of summer salary in June and July in order to make them 100%-time in the summer, per the CNS Processing Guidance linked above. Otherwise, the use of start-up funding for summer salary is dependent on what was specified in the faculty member’s offer letter. If a faculty member wishes to use start-up funds to cover summer salary in ways that are not outlined in the offer letter, their Department Chair or Director must submit a Startup for Summer Salary Annual Request Form to CNS Faculty Affairs for approval from the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs.

NIH and CPRIT Summer Salary Caps

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) impose a limit on the amount of direct salary individuals can receive under grants they support.  Faculty members looking to support themselves beyond the caps can cover the gap through other, less restrictive funds as appropriate.  Otherwise, faculty will be paid at the NIH or CPRIT cap rates.

Appointment Dates

For Summer 2025, appointment dates for faculty teaching summer session courses are as follows:

• First Summer Session: May 16 – June 30
• Second Summer Session: July 1 – August 15
• Nine Week Session: May 16 – July 15
• Whole Summer Session: May 16 – August 15

Funding

Summer session teaching should be funded on your department's summer session accounts: 20-XXXX-2903 for professional track faculty and 19-XXXX-2003 for tenured/tenure track faculty. 

Summer Teaching Loads

Faculty members are normally permitted to teach only one course during the summer (i.e. one organized course in any of the terms). A faculty member may be assigned to teach two courses during the summer if the Department Chair determines that every faculty member qualified to teach has been considered, no other qualified instructor is interested in teaching, and the two courses do not overlap/are not in the same summer session. If the courses do overlap, the department will need to either seek pre-approval from the College for any combination of overlapping courses that does not exceed 40 SWHs or submit an Instructional Overload Form for any combination of overlapping courses that are over 40 SWHs. For more information about summer Instructional Overload, please see the overload tab below.

Compensation and Salary Cap

Faculty compensation for summer session teaching is calculated on a per course basis. Compensation for each organized course of 3 or more credit hours is usually equal to either 1/6th of the faculty member's long session rate or $11,000 (the summer salary cap), whichever is lesser. To figure out the exact course stipend, please use the All-in-One Job Costing Tool (JCT). Whether a course is 6, 9, or 12 weeks does not affect a faculty member's compensation; course duration does, however, affect the percent time appointment that this compensation represents.

Maymester Courses

Payments to faculty who teach a Maymester course are processed as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the long session job, following scenario 14 outlined in the Faculty Summer Job Scenario Matrix. Maymesters are paid at either 1/6th of the faculty members’ long session rate or $11,000 (the summer salary cap), whichever is lesser. Coverage start and end dates should reflect the Maymester course dates and the Schedule Payment Date should be the same as the course end date. These payments should be paid using departmental summer session faculty salary accounts.

Intersessions

Intersessions are courses that take place between the spring and summer semesters. Like Maymesters, they are listed on the spring course schedule and require students to register for them when registering for spring courses. However, unlike Maymesters, intersessions do not culminate in a trip abroad.

Departments need to communicate clearly, early, and often about any intentions to offer intersession courses. Since intersessions are not technically study abroad programs, they are handled on an ad hoc basis by the office of Strategy Partnership & Initiatives. Departments should officially request course approval and instructional funds for intersessions in the summer planning process. Once approved, faculty teaching an intersession will be paid a course load-proportional rate, to be processed as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the long session job, following scenario 14 outlined in the Faculty Summer Job Scenario Matrix. These payments should be paid using departmental summer session faculty salary accounts.

Instructional Overloads

If a faculty member teaches two overlapping courses in the same summer session, and those courses put the faculty member over 40 SWHs, then an Instructional Overload must be requested. The unit requesting the faculty member to teach an overload should first seek instructional budget pre-approval from the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education via email. If the budget is approved, the unit will then initiate the official overload approval request by submitting the Instructional Overload Pre-Approval Form to CNS Faculty Affairs. Instructional overload forms must be signed by the unit Chair and the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (note: summer overload does not require pre-approval from the Provost's Office). Once the overload has been approved by the College, the unit can process the overload in Workday by following scenario 12 outlined in the Faculty Summer Job Scenario Matrix.

Option III

Work performed for Option III programs is not considered instructional overload, therefore compensation for these courses must only be pre-approved at the College-level by the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. Once approved, summer Option III payments are processed as follows:

• If the faculty is not currently full-time in the summer, process the Option III payment as a non-teaching summer Add Job with SWHs that correspond to the amount of compensation requested.
• If a faculty member is already full-time during the summer, process the Option III payment as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the faculty's existing summer job. Alternatively, departments can create a 0% summer Add Job (using a No Pay Salary Plan) and then process the Option III One-Time Payment on that appointment. Either option is acceptable; however, the latter is recommended.
• If the Option III course is very sporadic (i.e., a weekend here of there during the summer), process the Option III payment as a One-Time Payment in Workday on the faculty's long session job.

Supplements

Summer additional employment is considered work that exceeds 40 SWHs. Any summer activities (teaching and non-teaching combined) up to 40 SHWs must be paid on a faculty summer Add Job. Any additional non-teaching employment is then processed as a One-Time Payment or an Allowance.  Note, research-related activities are never considered additional employment.

Modified Service

Faculty members on modified service or phased retirement should not normally have summer appointments. Any exceptions to this policy must be approved in advance by the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Provost Office.

Inactive Faculty Working During the Summer

If a professional track faculty who's primary job is inactive in the spring semester is planning to work during the summer (salary, one-time payment, allowance, etc.), then the following steps are required before the department can process the Add Job. Note that a Switch Primary Job is not required in this case.

1. Reactivate the primary inactive job effective 5/16 with 0 SWHs.
2. Process an Add Job for the summer work. Add payments to the summer job, as applicable.
3. Evaluate their status as of 8/16 and make other changes, as necessary.

Summer Insurance

Please see HR’s Summer Coverage for Faculty page for information regarding faculty summer insurance.

Beginning in AY 2024-25, faculty will pre-pay one month of summer insurance premium on each of their March 1st, April 1st and May 1st paychecks. This “double deduction” will replace the “quadruple deduction” that used to be taken from the June 1st paycheck. This change will impact all benefits-eligible faculty whose primary job is a nine-month faculty appointment, regardless of whether they are appointed in the summer. More details about this change can be found on the Summer Insurance Premium FAQ.